This assignment has been adapted from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Managing Virtual Work Teams – A SHRM case study by Frankie S. Jones, PhD. For this group assignment there are three parts. · Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams · Part II: Building a Virtual Team · Part III: Managing Conflict Virtually Directions:In your groups, you will review, discuss, and address questions in each of these parts in order to arrive at your collective responses. As part of your discussion, you are to apply what you have read and discussed in our course in order to justify your position. Use outside sources for any other information you need to complete this assignment. Use the group discussion forum prepared for your team to summarize your group responses to each part of the case study. After your team discusses all three parts associated with this case, the team will prepare a 7-10 page paper that includes your team’s responses and addresses the questions in each of the three parts properly. This paper will serve as your team voice to coach Lauren on how to lead her cross-functional team to success and overcome the issues presented in the case study. In other words, the team members will collaborate to write the paper, and each team member will submit this paper to the assignment section to facilitate grading. Your team paper should include a minimum of 10 references from sources published within the last ten years. Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams (Lauren) Lauren is assigned team leader of a cross-functional team for a very important project to the company. Lauren reviews the profiles of the six team members her boss gave her. She is both intrigued and anxious when she sees that team members are geographically dispersed. Lauren works in the Atlanta office. One team member is in India; another is in Germany; and the rest live in the United States, but in different time zones. Two staff members are in the eastern time zone (Virginia and North Carolina) and two staff members are in the central time zone (Texas and Louisiana). Lauren has never managed a virtual team and is unsure what special skills it will take to be successful. She begins to wonder what competencies are necessary for virtual team leaders and members. She studies the team member profiles and creates a matrix to evaluate each member’s strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of working virtually. She includes herself because she realizes she needs to evaluate her own strengths and weaknesses. Lauren thinks about the challenges and opportunities she will face managing this virtual team. In your assigned groups, you are to: · Review the supplied team member matrix. · Brainstorm the challenges and/or opportunities Lauren’s team might face. · Record your ideas in the group discussion forum. Team Member Matrix Team Member Location (Time Zone) Communication Preferences Virtual experience Strengths Weaknesses Lauren ...

1. This assignment has been adapted from the Society for Human
Resource Management (SHRM), Managing Virtual Work Teams
– A SHRM case study by Frankie S. Jones, PhD.
For this group assignment there are three parts.
· Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams
· Part II: Building a Virtual Team
· Part III: Managing Conflict Virtually
Directions:In your groups, you will review, discuss, and address
questions in each of these parts in order to arrive at your
collective responses. As part of your discussion, you are to
apply what you have read and discussed in our course in order
to justify your position. Use outside sources for any other
information you need to complete this assignment. Use the
group discussion forum prepared for your team to summarize
your group responses to each part of the case study. After your
team discusses all three parts associated with this case, the team
will prepare a 7-10 page paper that includes your team’s
responses and addresses the questions in each of the three parts
properly. This paper will serve as your team voice to coach
Lauren on how to lead her cross-functional team to success and
overcome the issues presented in the case study. In other
words, the team members will collaborate to write the paper,
and each team member will submit this paper to the assignment
section to facilitate grading. Your team paper should include a
minimum of 10 references from sources published within the
last ten years.
Part I: An Introduction to Virtual Teams (Lauren)
Lauren is assigned team leader of a cross-functional team for a
very important project to the company. Lauren reviews the
profiles of the six team members her boss gave her. She is both
intrigued and anxious when she sees that team members are
geographically dispersed.

2. Lauren works in the Atlanta office. One team member is in
India; another is in Germany; and the rest live in the United
States, but in different time zones. Two staff members are in
the eastern time zone (Virginia and North Carolina) and two
staff members are in the central time zone (Texas and
Louisiana).
Lauren has never managed a virtual team and is unsure what
special skills it will take to be successful. She begins to
wonder what competencies are necessary for virtual team
leaders and members. She studies the team member profiles and
creates a matrix to evaluate each member’s strengths and
weaknesses from the perspective of working virtually. She
includes herself because she realizes she needs to evaluate her
own strengths and weaknesses. Lauren thinks about the
challenges and opportunities she will face managing this virtual
team.
In your assigned groups, you are to:
· Review the supplied team member matrix.
· Brainstorm the challenges and/or opportunities Lauren’s
team might face.
· Record your ideas in the group discussion forum.
Team Member Matrix
Team Member
Location (Time Zone)
Communication Preferences
Virtual experience
Strengths
Weaknesses
Lauren (Team Manager)
Atlanta, GA (Eastern)
E-mail
No
• Building and maintaining trust.
• Performance management and coaching.
• Networking.

3. • Appropriate use of information technology.
• Developing and adapting standard team processes.
• Managing across cultures.
Santosh
Pune, India (GMT+05:30)
Instant messaging
Yes
• Interpersonal awareness.
• Use of technology.
• Self-management.
• Project management.
John
Wilmington, NC (Eastern)
Telephone
No
• Networking face-to-face.
• Use of technology.
• Spanning boundaries.
Joyce
Norfolk, VA (Eastern)
E-mail
Yes
• Self-management.
• Project management.
• Networking.
Helga
Berlin, Germany (Central European)
SharePoint;Webconferencing (with video)
Yes
• Use of technology.
• Interpersonal awareness.
• Project management.
Adam
Dallas, TX(Central)
Instant messaging, discussion boards
No

4. • Networking via technology.
• Spanning boundaries.
• Use of technology.
Brenda
New Orleans, LA (Central)
Instant messaging; blogs; SharePoint; e-mail
Yes
• Use of technology.
• Interpersonal awareness.
• Networking.
• Spanning boundaries.
• Self-management.
Part II: Building a Virtual Team
Lauren has evaluated the challenges and opportunities that
could arise as she manages her virtual team. To mitigate
challenges and take advantage of opportunities, she decides to
conduct a kick-off meeting next week. She wants to set the
ground rules for how her team will operate and present them at
the kick-off meeting. What topics should Lauren’s agenda
include? Which ground rules should she mandate and which
should she negotiate? How will she build relationships and
trust during this initial meeting?
In your assigned groups, you are to:
· Create an agenda for Lauren’s kick-off meeting. (Everyone
choose 2-3 agenda items)
· Explain why you chose each agenda topic. (Each person
answers for their own agenda items)
· Identify the ground rules for the team, and propose which
ground rules she should mandate and which ones she should
negotiate. (Erica)
· Recommend ways that Lauren could build relationships and
trust during this initial meeting. (Erica and Lauren)
· Record your responses in the group discussion forum.
(Lavisia)

5. Part III: Managing Conflict Virtually
Even though your team presented Lauren with an agenda for the
kickoff meeting, along with ground rules, she used the agenda
below for the kick-off meeting.
She set expectations for status reporting, the technologies to be
used, and performance management. The types of
communication the team agreed on included e-mail, instant
messaging, and web conferencing. The team also agreed to use
Microsoft SharePoint to report project status and to create a
virtual community for team members to build relationships and
trust. Lauren asked all team members to upload their pictures
and their résumés to jump-start the community.
Lauren’s Agenda:
· Getting-to-Know-You Activity
· Team Goals and Objectives
· Technologies We Will Use (open discussion)
· Virtual Community (pictures and bios)
· Status Reporting
· Team Meetings
· One-on-one meetings
Despite setting ground rules, the following conflicts arose
within Lauren’s team:
· Lags in e-mail responses generated mistrust between two
team members.
· One team member complained that the other team members
tried to use instant messaging to solve complex problems and
resolutions are never reached.
· There has been an uneven exchange of project knowledge.
In your assigned groups, you are to:
· Recommend actions Lauren should take now to resolve
these conflicts.
· Discuss what Lauren could have done to prevent the
conflicts from occurring in the first place.
· Recommend actions Lauren can take to minimize team

6. conflict in the future.